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Here are some simple tips to help you make things happen in the kitchen.  For those of you new to a kitchen, you may want to brush up on the inner workings of your cooktop and oven.  These tips will get you up and running for meal preparation.  For those of you comfortable in the kitchen, you should still be able to take away some pointers.

 

·        Be organized!  If you need to do a whole kitchen overhaul- do it. 

o       Organize your pantry (it should be empty now that you have cleared it out of all of the crappy food). 

o       Reorganize your refrigerator

o       Set up a flow for your kitchen.  For example, I have the glasses very near the dishwasher because they are harder to transport, colanders by the sink, pots/pans right next to the stove, etc.

o       Keep you favorite recipes organized and convenient. 

o       Get rid of what you don’t need.  Try the “box rule”.  Put all of your kitchen gadgets/utensils in a large plastic bin or cardboard box.  Pull items from the box as you need them.  At the end of 30 days, get rid of whatever is left in the box- you don’t need it!

 

·        Clean up as you go.  It is much easier to put away your spices, mixing bowls, etc while your meal is sautéing/simmering than it is to do at the end.  This is especially true if you do not have a lot of counter space in your kitchen. 

 

·        Learn how to multitask.  This comes with experience, but with practice you should be able to time dinner to the minute.  For example, when I am cooking chicken, I know precisely when to put on the brown rice and steam the broccoli so that they will all be done at the same time.  You have to sort of work backwards on your cooking times.

 

·        Keep it simple.  If you are just starting out in the kitchen don’t start with a gourmet 5 course meal.  A simple meal of sautéed chicken, brown rice, and steamed broccoli is easy, tasty, and nutritious.

 

·        Start a menu diary.  If you find a recipe that you and your family like, keep it.  Don’t be like me and lose it and forget about it.  Keep a binder, index card holder, computer file, etc. with the items you like so that you can go back to it often. 

 

·        Keep it fun.  Don’t consider cooking a chore, it can actually give you a chance to relax.  Put on some music, enjoy the beauty and aromas of what you are making, admire your concoctions, etc.

 

 

·        Don’t get distracted.  Let the children know you will be busy for the next 30 minutes, don’t answer the phone, put your to-do list in the back of your mind, etc.  This will make the process more enjoyable and productive.

 

·        Keep a stocked pantry.  Make a list if items that you know you need on hand.  When you use the last of this item (or close to it) put it on your shopping list.  You should keep a running shopping list handy.  For me, it is just a sticky note I keep in one spot and grab when going to the store. 

 

·        Chop vegetables at the beginning of the week.  You wash and chop the vegetables you will use for the week.  For example, cut up bell peppers, onions, celery, broccoli, cucumbers, lettuce, etc.  You can then use them in salads or in your recipes.  If you have the time on the front end, it will save you time on the back end.  Save things like tomatoes and strawberries until just before you need them, they don’t do well stored.

 

·        Skip the microwave.  I will let you do your own research on the microwave but my common sense philosophy is that I would rather be safe than sorry.  Here are some tricks to avoiding the microwave.  Put leftover pasta in a sealed Ziploc bag and immerse in boiling water for a couple of minutes, steam veggies in a steamer on the stovetop (this doesn’t take much longer than the microwave), reheat leftovers in a skillet over low-medium heat, etc.

 

·        Leave the kitchen gadgets you use frequently on the counter.  For example, leave your blender out for making smoothies in the morning and the food processor for blending vegetables for soups, etc.

 

·        Gather all of your ingredients before you start cooking.  You can use small bowl or ramekins to measure out ingredients.  To save dishwasher space, you can put ingredients on a cutting board and scrape them into the recipe when needed.  That way all of the bags, bottles, etc. are put away before you start cooking.  Plus, you are not scrambling to find things.

 

·        Shop more often.  As much as I love the big bulk stores, it is not the best place to shop for fresh ingredients.  For the produce and meat you are better off shopping more often to ensure that the ingredients are fresh and not full of preservatives. 

 

·        Have salad fixins’ (wow, I used that in a sentence…I am from Pennsylvania but have lived in Georgia for 13 years now and I can finally say I used the word fixins’!)  If you have chopped your veggies, you can quickly throw a salad together with some olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice. 

 

·        Have the right equipment.  Every kitchen needs some good cookware (preferably enameled cast iron), a steamer basket, a juicer, a blender, etc.  See some of my other articles for specifics.

 

Cooking is an art so it takes time to learn the nuiances of preparing a meal.  The proper equipment and a great plan (i.e. meal plan/recipes) is key to success in the kitchen. 

 

Happy Cooking!  

Shopping can be a challenge, especially if you are trying to dodge bullets and not step on land mines.  When I first started making massive changes to my diet, I would find myself spending lots of extra time reading labels.  However, as time went on, I became able to dart in and out of a store in record time with only healthy ingredients in hand. 

 

Here are a couple of tips for shopping.

 

·        Find a “mega” health food store where you can stock up on the things you can’t find closer to home. 

 

·        Keep your basics/staples stocked.  There is nothing worse than deciding what you are going to cook only to find out you are out of half of the ingredients. 

 

·        Buy fruit and vegetables for 2-3 days, don’t stock up.  To ensure you get the freshest produce and that you won’t waste money by watching it spoil on your counter or in your refrigerator, don’t buy more than you can eat in a couple of days.

 

·        Shop around the outside of the store because that is typically where the good stuff is.  When you get into the inner bowels of the store that is where you will find the less healthy, pre-packaged, processed crap.

 

·        Build your own resource guide.  Start keeping a list of what items (brand name specific) you like, where you can find them, and where they are cheapest.  This will save you time when making your meal choices for the week.

 

·        Get to know your store and department managers.  They are sometimes hard to find but if you have questions or need assistance, they are happy to help.  If there is an item you really love, ask if they can stock it.  Sometimes they are willing to custom order items for you.

 

·        If money is a concern, use the Pesticides in Produce Wallet Guide that you can print out from www.foodnews.org.  This will tell you what produce you really must buy organic and which ones may be ok to buy conventionally. 

 

·        Keep a shopping list somewhere handy so as you run out of items or think of something you need, you can write it down.  I just use a sticky note on the refrigerator and if I am going to the store, it just grab it and put a new one up.

 

·        Order products online.  www.amazon.com has a lot of great organic and natural products, especially for stocking your pantry.  I use www.uswellnessmeats.com for grass-fed beef and www.vitalchoice.com for fresh Alaskan salmon.

 

·        Utilize the internet to find local resources.  Some great websites are www.realmilk.org for sourcing raw milk, www.eatwild.com for sourcing grass fed beef

 

·        Read labels!  As mentioned above, this may take a little longer but you don’t want to get it home and find that it contains less than desirable ingredients.  You’re better off finding out at the store.

 

·        At the deli counter ask for them to print out the ingredient label for whatever you are ordering.  For the most part, deli meats are not healthy.  BUT if you are going to buy it, stay away from MSG, nitrates, nitrites, artificial preservatives, by-products, etc.  Many of the flavored/spiced lunchmeats contain lots of additives.  Stick with the plain variety if you are buying it.  Some organic brands are Applegate Farms and Wilshire Farms.

 

·        Write out your shopping list as the store is arranged so that you can move systematically through the store without having to back track.  I can see the aisles in my sleep now.  I am constantly directing lost sheep around the store. 

 

Happy Shopping!

When I hear people say, “I’m too busy.” I always cringe.  After all, it is a matter of priorities, isn’t it?  Stay with me here.  You go to work because you need to make money to live.  Even if there were 25 loads of dirty laundry to do, a sink full of dirty dishes, a PTA meeting, etc. you would still go to work.  If you found a lump in your breast, would you miss your scheduled doctors appointment?  No, probably not.  Why, because it becomes a priority.  Work is a priority.  Well, I propose to you that your diet and nutrition should be a priority too.  Why should the food that actually nourishes and fuels you body be put at the end of the priority list?  It’s not that you don’t have time, it’s that you don’t make time.

 

Everyone in this day and age is busy, lets face it, we are all stressed and pressed for time but are we willing to sacrifice our health for a convenient diet instead of a nourishing one?  Have you ever noticed that the most successful people you know are also the busiest?  These people are masters at prioritizing and organizing.  They are able to draw solid yellow lines (no passing zone) around the segments of their lives.  This allows them to accomplish their objectives and does not compromise their priorities.  I heard someone say once that if you want something done and done right, give it to a busy person.  We can all find time for the things that are important to us.  It is just a matter of defining what those things are.

 

So, back to nutrition.  If you decide to make it a priority, guess what, it will be!  If you know you will be at work until 7PM every night next week, plan accordingly.  Break out the crockpot and throw ingredients in before you leave, make 5 meals on Sunday, make some no-cook meals, etc.  You get the idea.  It can be done.  If you know you are going to have the kids on the road all day, pack a lunch, pack snacks, see if there is a Whole Foods on your route, etc.  If it is a priority, it will happen.  However, without a plan failure is guaranteed.  Then you can pull out that handy excuse of “I don’t have time.” 

 

Just like exercise, you don’t have to spend hours on end preparing and planning meals.  You can cook a full course dinner in under 30 minutes.  By the time you would decide where to go out to eat, get in the car, drive there, wait to be served, eat, wait for the bill, and drive home you could have cooked at home, relaxed, and had the kitchen clean.  Think about it this way, you have to go to the grocery store anyway.  You are now just going to buy different things.  Some of the items can even be purchased online.  You don’t even have to leave home or your desk.

 

Please realized that “too busy” is just an excuse.  Excuses are very destructive.  They have the ability to corrupt our minds, to talk us into believing things that aren’t true, to justify our bad behaviors, and to keep us stuck in the same ruts.  Isn’t it time to break down our excuses?  E need to ask ourselves, “what are we busy doing?”

 

Here are some examples.  Yes, some of them are radical, yes, some of them require work and commitment. 

 

Excuse                                                Catalyst for change

“I work such long hours”                       Maybe it’s time for a career change

“I have 3 kids”

 

Excuse	Catalyst for change
“I work such long hours”	Think about a career change, finding a job closer to home so you can eat lunch at home, teleworking.
“I have 3 kids”	Just remember, there are other families with more kids that are able to pull it off.  There is always someone busier than you.
“I don’t like vegetables”	Tough…eat them anyway because they are good for you
“I don’t know how to cook”	Get a book, watch a video, just try…what’s the worst that can happen?  (Just don’t burn up the kitchen)

 

Whatever you do, don’t’ let excuses prevent you from eating a healthy diet, your body deserves the fuel it desires.  After all, if you abuse it, you lose it.  Will all of the long hours, soccer practices, watching tv, patronizing restaurants, etc be worth it when you lose your health?  Time is not the enemy, it is how you manage your time that is the enemy.  By the way, buying an organizer/planner that you can plug tasks into is not the answer.  It is the bigger picture that you must start with.  Decide what your priorities are (nutrition better be one of them) and no one or nothing should be able to derail your commitment to that.  It should be right up there with quality family time, exercise, and spiritual connection.  You can do it!

 

Happy planning!                                  

What if for one day you ate a clean, healthy, abundant diet?  Would you go into shock, would you die without sugar for a day?  Would you be proud of yourself?  Would you feel vibrant and full of life?  Would you be shunned by society?  Are you willing to give it a shot?

 

Wait, don’t answer that until you hear exactly what you would be giving up.  You would have to completely eliminate (not just cut back on) sodas, any and all sugar or sugar derivatives, all artificial sweeteners, processed foods, additives, preservatives, processed oils, processed grains, no eating out, nothing that resembles the standard American diet.  Now what is your answer?  Would it be hard?  For some people, even the thought seems impossible. 

 

OK, if you are still in, here is what you get to add!  Organic fruit, organic vegetables, good oils like coconut and olive, organic grass fed beef, organic chicken, organic free range eggs, raw nuts/seeds, etc.  That doesn’t sound too bad, right?  This is where the going gets tough and people fold- they miss their chips, sodas, and little debbies.  It’s hard!  It’s unusual! It’s weird!

 

If you are willing to give this little experiment a try, browse around, get some meal ideas, try some, get cooking, and dust off your stove and kitchen table- you will be using it!

 

If you bailed earlier, why would you not do it?  Is it because it is too hard, you don’t have enough time, you don’t know how, etc?  Well, those are all excuses that are making you believe that is the reality.  But it is not true.  You can do it, it is not impossible.  After all, cancer doesn’t care about your excuses.  Neither do heart disease or diabetes.  No one is going to make changes for you, you have to want it for yourself.  It is like buying an insurance policy.  It is like putting money in the bank of health.  Refusing to do it is blatent disrespect to your body.  Don’t let your excuses hold you back from achieving your maximized life.

 

Change is Good!

I have spent a lot of time working on recipes.  I pride myself on being able to convert a “regular” recipe into a healthy one and making meals under 30 minutes.  However, I have come to realize that I could have millions of recipes but getting people to actually use them is the challenge.  Some people are just so intimidated of cooking, so unmotivated to cook, or just plain don’t want to.  My new focus is on preparing short how-to videos on HOW to cook, not what to cook.  Seeing someone do it is often much easier than reading it on the page.  I hope to have about 100 videos in the next couple of months. 

Rather than have them look like something from the Food Network, I have decided that if I want to get them done, I will have to fit the filming into my regular life.  Therefore, the kids, their friends, the dog, the phone, the doorbell, etc.  all make appearances.  I don’t dress up, I don’t put on extra make-up, I just keep the camera set up in the kitchen and hit record.  Hey, this is real life, right?  I think it is important that people can relate.  I know when I watch some of the cooking shows, I think to myself, they have a studio, hundreds of people working for them, no kids, no distractions- must be nice.  What I want to show is that healthy eating IS possible even for crazy busy people.  It’s not hard, it doesn’t take forever, it can please all family members, and it can be fun.  Even though I have to get over the fact that I think I look like a big dork…my goal is to help other people get in the kitchen.

I am inspired to write about this topic today becasue we just got back from a business trip and I was confronted with the daunting task of finding something on the menu I could actually stomach at several different restaurants.  Now that I have adopted the principles of healthy eating, it has become almost impossible to eat out and feel good about what I’m eating.  I typically have to compromise and choose the lesser the evils on the menu.  I have truly become Sally from “When Harry Met Sally” which is highly unusual for me.  I am a very low-maintenance, feather-ruffling avoider.  So to become this high maintenance orderer is difficult for me.  However, I have become very adept at it.  Everyone must do the same. 

I guess I should back track and say that you should avoid eating out at all costs.  Save restaurant trips for special occasions or TRUE emergencies (getting home late from work and having to pick the kids up from soccer practice is NOT an emergency).  Let’s face it, if I or you want to be healthy and eat healthy meals, we must get our butts in the kitchen.  Even with time constraints, it is possible to throw together a healthy meal.  The fact of the matter is that more and more restaurants are falling into the American way- quick, cheap, and man-altered.  Less and less are cooking from scratch and using the best ingredients.  Even most of the sit-down restaurants are nothing more than glorified fast food restaurants. 

Have you ever stopped to think about how it is possible for a restaurant to have 50 million things on their menu and have it out to your table in under 15 minutes.  Think about it…the only way is for them to rip open a frozen package or a can and nuke it or throw it in a pan for a couple of minutes.  Taking it a step further, you should be ticked off that restaurants can charge you out the wazoo for let’s say a mile-high quadruple layer of chocolate cake that they merely defrosted and sprinkled some powdered sugar and strawberry syrup on.  Are you kidding me?  It infuriates me when people say they can’t afford to buy organic food or because it costs too much but are willing to take their entire family out to eat almost every day of the week.  The amount of money that could be saved by eating at home is staggering.  Eating healthy, organic foods would still leave a lot of money left over.

I’ll leave you all with these staggering tidbits that appeared in a Men’s Health article by By David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding.  (Additional research by Lauren Murrow) about some of America’s favorite restaurants.  Feel free to be outraged!

1.  Outback Steakhouse- An order of Aussie Cheese Fries has 2,900 calories and an Ayers Rock Strip has 60 grams of fat.

2.  Applebee’s- Many of it’s low fat items have more than 500 calories.  For example, the Low Fat Chicken Quesidillas have 742 calories and 90 grams of carbs per order.

3.  IHOP-   That its Omelette Feast has 1,335 calories and 35 grams of saturated fat. (By the time you finish eating this behemoth breakfast, you’ll have consumed 150 percent of your daily fat requirement and 300 percent of your suggested cholesterol intake.) Said IHOP’s director of communications, “We do not maintain nutritional data on our menu items, so I am unable to assist you.”

4.  Hooters- Our own investigation revealed that the chain’s wing sauce (which consists primarily of butter, sweet cream, and partially hydrogenated margarine) also contains such unappetizing additives as maltodextrin, propylene glycol alginate, xanthan gum, calcium disodium EDTA, and potassium sorbate.

5.  Arby’s- The FDA has no definition of “all natural.” Thus, chains like Arby’s can say they serve “100 percent all-natural chicken,” despite using artificial flavoring. Even worse, the “all-natural” smoothies at chains across the country may contain high-fructose corn syrup.

6.  Dunkin Donuts- Each of its medium-size fruit-and-yogurt smoothies packs at least 60 grams of sugar—more than four times the sugar in a chocolate-frosted cake doughnut. The fruit purees used in the smoothies are mixed with liberal doses of sugar and/or high-fructose corn syrup

7.  Burger King- It’s French Toast Sticks, which deliver more than 4 grams of fat per stick) share a deep fryer with the pork sausage, pork fritters, Chicken Tenders, chicken fries, Big Fish patties, hash browns, onion rings, and Cheesy Tots—and that all of those items contain harmful trans fats.

8.  Panera- That the synthetic food colorings in its pastries have been linked to irritability, restlessness, and sleep disturbance in children. And British researchers found that artificial food colorings and preservatives in the diets of 3-year-olds caused an increase in hyperactive behavior. (The same ingredients appear in fast-food items such as mayonnaise, M&M Blizzards, and McDonald’s shakes.)

9.  Maggiano’s- In Italy, a standard pasta serving means 4 ounces of noodles with a few tablespoons of sauce. At Maggiano’s, a large order of pasta translates into 2 pounds of noodles piled high on a hubcap-size dinner plate (15 1/2 inches in diameter)

10.  Baskin Robbins- The top four ingredients in its Blue Raspberry Fruit Blast are Sierra Mist soda, water, sugar, and corn syrup.

11.  Sit-Down Chains- That their food is actually considerably worse for you than the often-maligned fast-food fare. In fact, our menu analysis of 24 national chains revealed that the average entree at a sit-down restaurant contains 867 calories, compared with 522 calories in the average fast-food entree. And that’s before appetizers, sides, or desserts—selections that can easily double your total calorie intake.

Source:  http://www.menshealth.com/16secrets/index.html

Let’s order takeout!  (Just Kidding!)